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Two charged with reckless conduct following shooting incident

4 mins read
Arthur Cohen (Photo by Franklin County Detention Center)

FARMINGTON – A man and a woman have been charged with felony reckless conduct through the Franklin County court system following a shooting incident that took place in Jay Friday afternoon.

Arthur Cohen, 35 of Waterbury, Conn., and Alicia Beck, 35 of Bangor, have both been charged with reckless conduct with a firearm, a Class C felony, relating to “recklessly [creating] a substantial risk of serious bodily injury” toward the resident of a Main Street apartment. Cohen was further charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, also a Class C felony. According to police, Cohen and Beck were arrested after they were discovered with two handguns in a vehicle matching the description of a white SUV seen leaving the scene of Friday’s shooting.

Per an affidavit submitted by Jay Police Chief Richard Caton IV, officers responded to Otis Street at 2:40 p.m. on April 23 after receiving a report of shots fired. Police determined that bullets had struck a Main Street apartment, locating three shell casings from a 9mm handgun in the roadway and three bullet holes in the building: one underneath the roof of the doorway and two in a wall on the second story. The resident was located in the second-floor apartment.

“After analyzing the scene,” Caton wrote in the affidavit, “it appears that the shots would have come from the passenger side of the motor vehicle.”

Witnesses told dispatchers that they heard gunshots and saw a white SUV with out-of-state plates leaving Otis Street, turning left onto Main and heading toward Livermore Falls. Livermore Falls police observed and stopped a vehicle matching that description in Livermore Falls on Main Street, near Cumberland Farms, Caton said. JPD Officer Daniel Demers and LFPD Lt. Joseph Sage placed all three occupants of the vehicle into custody.

Alicia Beck (Photo by Franklin County Detention Center)

Three people were located in the vehicle, reportedly Beck was driving while Cohen was in the front passenger seat. The third occupant, a man, was released after police determined he had been picked up after the shooting.

Police allegedly located two 9mm handguns in the vehicle, one between Beck’s legs and the other in the door console of the driver’s front door. The handgun found in Beck’s possession was checked and discovered to be chambered with a Sig round, Caton said in the affidavit, with the chief also noting that Sig casings were also found at the scene of the shooting.

Cohen and Beck declined to answer questions after being read their Miranda rights, except to confirm that the third individual in the vehicle had been picked up away from the scene of the shooting. Both were arrested and transported to Franklin County Detention Center. Bail was later set at $20,000 cash for Cohen and $5,000 unsecured with a Maine Pre-Trial Services contract for Beck. Conditions of release include no contact with other people involved in the case.

Cohen was a number of felony convictions out of Connecticut, police noted, including assault, threatening, possession of a firearm and burglary.

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10 Comments

  1. So, Cohen was just out for a joy ride (from Conn.) during this COVID crisis and decided to put some bullets into the side of an apartment?…… hmmmm

  2. I assume this is about drugs. There is often a lot of general commentary pointing fingers at folks from more populated states.

    The highway runs both directions. I worked in the Waterbury area and you’d regularly see Maine plates in known high crime/high drug sale areas. This is a nation wide industry. No one brought this crap to Maine and we need to hold our communities and neighbors more accountable.

  3. No he was not out for a joy ride. Doesn’t seem you read the facts correctly. Seems he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  4. “In the wrong place at the wrong time”… with a gun. Yes, it definitely sounds like both of these people were in the wrong. So soon after a child was injured by shots fired from outside an apartment building, too. What a relief that this time no one was hurt.

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